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Preemptive

Obama's Air Marshal Surge

Updated 04.25.17 11:11AM ET / Published 01.06.10 3:36PM ET

In a preemptive move, perhaps to make up for missed red flags for the Christmas Day bomber, President Barack Obama has ordered a surge of federal air marshals for overseas flights flown by U.S. carriers. Officials called the move a "race against time" to combat potential suicide bombers, though there is no known threat. Other federal law-enforcement agents, who were trained after the 9/11 attacks, will cover domestic high-risk flights. Since 2001, the federal air-marshal force has increased from 32 to 3,200. Intelligence reports show that there could be more than a dozen trained suicide bombers trained to attack U.S. aircrafts. "The rush is to get our people in place before they get theirs launched," one official said.